Android OS Apocalypse in 2012 predicted by IDC

This week the analysts at IDC have predicted the end of the whole world - just so long as you consider Android smartphones and the rest of the mobile phone environment the bulk of that world. This revelation comes as the worldwide mobile phone market has been forecast by the group as growing just a bit more than 4% year over year in 2012, this the slowest rate of growth since 2009. The International Data Corporation have used their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker to show 1.8 billion mobile phones shipped by the end of this year, with 1.7 billion being shipped throughout 2011. How does that all add up to the end - or at least the decline - of Android? Have a look!

The IDC predicts that Android will not be destroyed and certainly will not end this year, not by a long shot, but they do note that they're predicting that this year will be the operating system's peak. IDC predicts that the most shipped smartphone operating system the world over will be Android through the course of the current five-year period we're in, but this year will be Google's mobile operating system's biggest.

In the analysis released this week by the IDC, they let it be known that the shares and growth Android is currently seeing is due in a large part to Samsung sales. They also note that "Android stratification" will be increasing over the next few years as the OS is pushed to devices from a wide variety of phone makers just entering the global market now. Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, noted the following on the subject:

"The smartphone parade won’t be as lively this year as it has been in past. The mobile phone user transition from feature phones to smartphones will continue in a gradual but unabated fashion. Smartphone growth, however, will increasingly be driven by a triumvirate of smartphone operating systems, namely Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7." - Restivo

The IDC predicts that although iOS market share will very likely decline this year, with "significant volume growth" expected through 2016 for Apple. Emerging market growth will be the most important market for Apple in order to see iOS gain share, while a vast portion of the market working with iOS already will be on replacement cycles in the next five years. Things are, as it should be expected, looking up for Apple.